Latino Daily News

Spanish Singer Raphael Labels Himself an “Indie” Artist

Spanish singer Raphael is facing the fact that others are thinking about his retirement, even though he is heading out on the latest tour in his decades-long career, a tour on which he will perform at the Sonorama music festival before a new audience: namely, “indie” fans.

“‘Indie’ doesn’t mean anything but independent. What I ask myself is how I didn’t go there before, because if there’s an artist who’s always done what he felt he had to do and has been his own boss, it’s me,” the 71-year-old singer said in an interview with Efe.

Raphael will kick things off in Cambrils, Tarragona, in northeastern Spain, next Sunday, calling this “De amor & defamer” (About love & lack of love) tour his “most forceful,” while he continues to seek an apex to his performances that “is very high” and which still is not in view.

The singer will release an album with the same title on which he will collect his “repertoire of love and lack of love” with many of his past hits revised with the help of Jacobo Calderon, the son of Juan Carlos Calderon, along with the input of his own relative Manuel Martos and accompanied by the RTVE Symphony Orchestra.

“I’ve put even more value into them, although that might seem to be incorrect,” Raphael said, citing a “spectacular” version of his number “En carne viva,” as well as “Provocacion,” “Que sabe nadie,” “Amor mio,” “No puedo arrancarte de mi” and songs by Jose Luis Perales like “Me estoy quedando solo.”

The tour will run from August to December and will wrap up in Madrid.

The singer said that in January he will once again record new songs with the help of young composers like Vega, with whom he recently sang “Wolverines,” which is included on her latest album.